Burdwan, April 28: Unknown miscreants raided the house of a Congress gram panchayat candidate at Khaji village under Ketugram police station early today and killed his wife.

Police said Ekina Bibi, 35, died of injuries she suffered when the criminals burst bombs at her on realising that her husband Ali Hussain was not at home.

Residents said Hussain was forced to flee the village with his wife after filing his nomination to contest the poll as a gram panchayat candidate of Rajur. The two-seat village panchayat was headed for a straight fight between the CPM and the Congress.

Bibi had returned to the village last evening to be with her daughter, who was left under the care of her brother.

The police said about a dozen armed men surrounded their house well past midnight. The gang looked for Hussain and finding no one there burst bombs.

Subdivisional police officer of Katwa Nishad Parvez said Hussain was one of the 11 people accused of killing CPM leader Ziaul Haque in August. “He had been arrested but was out on bail. Though he had filed nomination as a Congress candidate, he was active with the Forward Bloc,” added Parvez.

The officer said they were yet to ascertain the motive behind the killing of the woman. No one had been arrested as yet.

Putting the blame of the murder on the CPM, Congress MLA from Katwa Rabindranath Chatterjee said Hussain used to be a Bloc supporter before joining the Congress. “He had been falsely implicated in the murder case and his family was subjected to threats and driven out of the village. He was under a constant CPM threat to withdraw his nomination,” said Chatterjee.

CPM district committee member Achintya Mullick said Hussain’s wife was “killed by anti-socials”.